It is well known that paging system infrastructure operators derive revenue for selectively transmitting messages to persons carrying selective call receivers or selective call transceivers, hereinafter collectively referred to as pagers. Usually such messages are personal messages transmitted to one pager, although at times such messages are group messages transmitted to more than one pager. A user of the pager pays a fee to the paging infrastructure operator for such service either on a per message basis or on a flat rate for a predetermined time period. It is also well known that the paging infrastructure operator or another entity provides information services such as stock prices, weather reports, traffic reports, sports scores, etc., to users of pagers for a fee. Such services are customized to the needs and desires of each pager user; however, the information received through such services does not comprise personal messages. The fee for such information services usually depends upon the oftenness and quantity of information transmitted. Such fee typically is paid directly or indirectly to the other entity that provides the information. Collectively, the transmission of personal messages and the transmission of information services comprise paging services. In any event, the user of the pager pays for the paging services received on the pager.
Attempts have been made to provide paging services without the user of the pager paying any money for the services. One known method has been to transmit an advertisement with every personal message such that the pager displays the advertisement before the pager displays the personal message. With such known method, an advertiser pays for the paging services. Disadvantageously, with this prior art method, users of pagers must view every advertisement, including those advertisements that the users do not consider applicable to their interests. Further, known methods fail to provide to the user an option to bypass advertisements and instead pay for paging services. Finally, with known methods it is impracticable to transmit an advertisement with every update, such as a stock price update, transmitted as part of an information service.
Therefore, what is needed is an improved method and apparatus for providing free paging services to pager users through the use of advertisements in a way that encourages the user to ponder the content of advertisements transmitted to the user's pager.